“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let
anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.” Clifford Stoll

6 Tips for Using Passwords to Protect Against Identity and Business Theft

Ah, those pesky passwords. If you work in the corporate world or in an
office, you have one for your PC/Network and, unless there is a password
synchronization application that combines them, you probably have more than one
for other applications. Add those to the ones that you have for your home
Internet, your banking and other websites that require passwords, and before you
know it you have a nightmare on your hands in trying to manage them.

Part of the frustration has to do with the different requirements for
password formatting. Some systems only require four characters, some require
eight. Some need a combination of alpha and numeric characters and others do the
same with the addition of a few capital letters thrown in for extra security. It
can be positively maddening.

The worst thing you can do with your passwords is to place them in a text
document which can be accessed on the hard drive of your computer. Your files
are vulnerable - even if you think they are not. If someone is intent on finding
them, they can. Even if you place them into a password protected document, those
can be cracked, too.

Writing them down has its own vulnerabilities, too, and there are varying
opinions on this practice. If you do write them down on a piece of paper, put
the document in a locked location whether it is in your home or at work.

Here are 6 tips on how to handle your passwords:

1. Make them complex. People who use easy to remember or short passwords are
inviting disaster. Use a little imagination and pick a password that is very
difficult to attach to your life. Stay away from birth dates, phone numbers,
house numbers, or any other number that is associated with your life.

2. Keep passwords unique. When you change your passwords, make them unique
from each other. Do not use the same password on all of your sites. If you do,
then you are open to having every site that you have a password to being
vulnerable to hackers to log on and steal your identity, money or destroy your
reputation.

3. Be obscure. Use a combination of letters, numbers, capital letters and
special characters if possible. The more you do this, the more secure your
passwords will become. Create an alphanumeric version of a term you can
remember. Using this technique the word "Spaceship" becomes "Sp@ce5h!p".

4. Change regularly. This is the singular tip that can save you if you do not
heed any of the other tips. How often should you change your password? How
secure do you want to be? The frequency with which you change your password will
determine how secure you are from becoming a victim. The more often you change
it, the better you are. The longer you leave it the same, the more vulnerable
you become. Three months is a good cycle for a password, but certainly if you
fear for the security of your identity, then a monthly change is not out of the
question.

5. Password-protect your PC. Be sure to give your PC a password on power-up.
This will help protect your files unrestricted access to your PC.

6. Password-protect your wireless home network. If you have a wireless home
network, be sure to password protect it as well. Use the same principles above
in order to secure your wireless network. This will prevent others from
accessing your connection and using it maliciously to hack the personal or
business PCs and laptops you and your family use at home.

Finally, there are password programs that can help with this important task,
but the best advice is to start with the tips above right away. Password
software can be useful as an organizational tool, but it is no match for using
sound methods to manage and make your passwords difficult to crack.